Photo 1: A Black Rockfish
Black Rockfish: Sebastes melanops
This rockfish is excellent eating and a great fighter for sports fisherman. Unfortunately, even local sports fishermen with years of experience on this coast misidentify it as 'black bass' or 'black seabass' when it is in fact a rockfish and subject to the limitations on overfishing that all rockfish are subject to. In recent years, rockfish conservation has become a growing concern as they are slow to mature and easily overfished.